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Friday, July 16, 2010

Mini-Impressions: The End of the Adrien English Mysteries by Josh Lanyon

This is the truth here... I meant to write reviews for both Death of a Pirate King and The Dark Tide after I finished reading them back in May. The funny part of the story is that I was so caught up reading this series and the stories, I kept forgetting to well... write a review.

So, what did I do instead? I kept going back to the books and just kept re-reading them and forgetting to write a thing. I just wanted to enjoy them, over and over again. It became what I'll be calling: My Adrien English Obsessive Cycle.

It has happened to me before where I find a favorite book and become selfish. I want to keep these books to myself. These are books I loved so much that I can't write or talk about them, and/or sometimes it takes me a while to share my thoughts. These books become my private joy and I hold them tight.

The following are actually my first impressions of the books after I finished them with a few minor edits.

Death of a Pirate King (Adrien English Mysteries, Book 4) by Josh Lanyon

I loved Death of a Pirate King. Lanyon begins this book two years after The Hell You Say ends, and I think the way he used the timeline was just brilliant. The timeline allowed for character growth for Adrien, and what I thought was more subtle character growth for Jake. It also allows the reader to experience the maturity to relationships established in The Hell You Say, as well as the long term consequences to Jake's questionable actions. I also loved the way Lanyon weaved the mystery and the main character's personal lives in this installment. The end was stunning and the perfect set up for the last book of the series. Grade: A-

The Dark Tide (Adrien English Mysteries, Book 5) by Josh Lanyon

When I finished the Adrien English series all I could think was... I love the way Lanyon finished it off and I want to read it again! The mystery in TheDark Tide parallels Jake's own life in many ways and it has a wonderful retro atmosphere that I just loved. Adrien's character really blooms, as we see just how far he has come from the time we met him. Jake is still a bit of mystery at the end and frankly I like him that way. I loved that Lanyon kept Jake's character true to himself to the end. Both characters go for an emotional ride in TheDark Tide as does the reader, and I think it is an excellent ending to what turned out to be a fantastic series.

I'll admit here that once I finished The Dark Tide, I went back and re-read favorite passages and scenes throughout the whole series and had a bit of a problem letting go of it -- addictive series, addictive characters. What more can I say? Grade: A

LMAO! I read the first part of this post and I was like YES exactly what I went through!! haha I still haven't reviewed the last book. I want to reread it...but in the meantime, I've been re-reading my favorite passages and kinda sorta reread the first two again. LOL I just love Jake and Adrien.

But I need to reread the last book because I was distracted the first time I read it. I was visiting at a relative's house and people kept asking me about my ebook reader and yeah, cut into my reading.

What did I think of Jake in the last book? I liked his sincerity with Adrien... even when it was tough for Adrien to deal with it. I liked that Adrien realized that HE himself had not asked the right questions along the way. I loved Adrien's character growth and the way Jake dealt with the changes. We didn't get all the nitty gritty details about what Jake was going through outside of his relationship with Adrien, (except for a few) but that was okay with me. I loved the end. :)

Renee... by the time I got to the last two books I just wanted to hug these books and keep them to myself. *g*

I loved the atmosphere in all the books. Both Death of a Pirate King and The Dark Tide had that retro atmosphere... they transported me to another time, yet kept me in the here and now -- loved it!

I have a couple of Lanyon's other books in my TBR pile, but I have to check and see if I have your recommendations, if not I'll be sure to get them. Thank you!

About Me

a/k/a Hils. A lover of the written word, I'm an eclectic reader who reads a bit of everything -- from romance to history and science-fiction, and from poetry and LGBT to fantasy and classic literature. I love it all!

"I go on writing in both respectable and despised genres because I respect them all, rejoice in their differences, and reject only the prejudice and ignorance that dismisses any book, unread, as not worth reading. ”